


Hojo's Angel

by DarkAlchemistNinja, Kitsune_XIII



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Aka Hojo, Alcohol, Attempted Murder, Character with greasy slimy asshole syndrome, Drunken Shenanagins, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Graphic Description, Graphic Violence, M/M, Medical Procedures, Medical Trauma, Mpreg, Multi, My First Work in This Fandom, Parent/Child Incest, Psychological Torture, Rape/Non-con Elements, Sexual Content, Stockholm Syndrome, Torture, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2018-03-26 07:02:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3841558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkAlchemistNinja/pseuds/DarkAlchemistNinja, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitsune_XIII/pseuds/Kitsune_XIII
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This Fic is based on one question that is both huge and small at the same time:</p><p>What would have happened if Zack Fair had NOT rescued Cloud Strife from Hojo's greasy paws? </p><p>This story is based around that very question. It began as a role-play many years ago... and has stood the test of time. I'm still doing RPs about it now. This AU is something I'm very proud of, and it has begun to gather it's own fandom. </p><p>The story starts in Hojo's lab, and from there everything spirals out of control into drama, pain, agony, strife (lol), and tons of twists and turns. To put the entire storyline into a summary is quite an impossible task. However i would mind the tags very well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> I have not written fanfiction in almost 15 years, so forgive me if things are a bit off. Please mind the trigger tags as i would not like to be responsible for scarring anyone, and if i have forgotten a tag, please don't hesitate to let me know. I hope you enjoy this.. it's been many years in the making. The first chapter is an experiment to figure out this site. Bear with me please!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hojo's an asshole.

He drifted in darkness, voices around him muted beyond his ability to understand them. _Is this the Lifestream?_ he thought to himself absently as he floated about, his consciousness drifting around the ether. It was nice in oblivion... It was soothing and calm. Free from pain and the human duties of the quest for understanding everything.

Abruptly his reverie was ruined as he came to; pain shooting through his body as something foul was again injected into one of the many tubes that were inserted into his body. Blue eyes snapped open and immediately started to burn as the solution that kept him in stasis began to eat away at his eyes. He closed them again. He heard loud beeping as the solution was draining, being pumped out and into another tube, no doubt. 

It was nothing new, it had happened many times... too many for him to count, really. He'd held out hope at first that someone would save him, but after a while... that hope had faded. Hell was now his reality. A living, never end ing nightmare that he lived every day. As the fluid drained down his body, his blonde hair drooped a little bit, but still retained, miraculously after all this time, it's original spike. He coughed harshly, sputtering as he spat out what little of the solution had landed in his mouth and throat.

His blue eyes opened again as he heard the bastard. He glared out through the swiftly clearing fog that was the stasis solution at the greasy silky voice that was a constant irritation to his victim. "Oh good. You're awake." The blonde inside the stasis chamber growled in reply. "tsk... that is no way to behave." Said the same voice. "Hojo..." he hissed. "What hell do you have in store for me today?"  
The speaker, Hojo; Adjusted his glasses and glanced at the one now being held up by little more than a post painfully screwed into his spine. "Now now, Cloud. It's not Hell, it's science." He said calmly. "Then let me out of here!" he said harshly, knowing better than to thrash lest he permanantly injure himself. He contented himself with just simply glaring. 

He expected the scientist to ignore him or refuse as usual. However... "fine." came the brisque reply. Cloud blinked. One of the few things he could do that didn't cause him immense pain. He saw the raven haired bastard hit a button at the side of his tank and the glass lowered around him. One of Hojo's assistants started to disconnect the various IV's and tubes that were attached to him, then lowered the pole that kept Cloud suspendedly aloft -quite painfully mind you- till his feet hit the floor.  
He screamed in agony as the screws were removed from his spine, causing him to collapse onto the floor in a rather undignified heap. He was not left there long though. The assistants grabbed him and picked him up off the floor. Cloud wanted to fight, but his attempts were feeble at best, having been in this situation for at least two months. They placed him on a metal gurney and secured him to it through straps  
oneach arm and ankle, one across his knees, and a last across his chest. 

He closed his eyes. All he wanted to do was sleep... actual sleep... not that forced stasis coma he kept getting drugged into. That was surprisingly not restful in the slightest. All too soon he heard that damn slimeball's voice once more. "hmm It seems you've taken all you can of the Mako treatement." Hojo said, gazing at a chart. He held up a syringe. "Time to introduce something new." Inside the syringe was a solution that seemed to almost sparkle as if infused with small diamonds.  
Cloud shook his head. "Don't." he said, knowing the words were futile and would fall on deaf ears. Hojo just laughed and inserted the syringe into the shunt that was in Cloud's forearm; the only one not removed by his assistants. Instantly there was pain shooting through his bloodstream, slowly at first, drifting up his arm and making him moan with pain but then, when it reached his heart, he screamed; his back arching as much as it could off the table as pain coursed through him almost unbearably. 

"Take him to room 214 B" said Hojo callously, ignoring the writhing figure of Cloud who continued to scream loudly as the assistants wheeled the metal gurney Cloud was strapped helplessly to into a soundproofed room, locked the wheels, and left him to writhe out his agony in darkness as they shut off the light.  
His body in absolute agony, Cloud was convinced he was about to die; he could see nothing but white; even knowing the room was dark. He could feel his skin begin to prickle, as if he were mutating. As the initial pain began to subsided after who knew how many minutes? hours? days? He lie there panting and gasping for breath as the darkness around him came; the white fading. 

He was itchy now... all over itchy... like his skin was flaking off or something. And a dull ache had begun to develop near his shoulderblades, and also under them. He had no idea what this meant; but the pain had abated enough to where he could actually fall asleep. So he did, despite the itching that was driving him insane. In the darkness... he wasn't able to see what was happening to his own body... That crafty bastard had made sure of that... He supposed Hojo wanted to be the one to see the transformations first... or perhaps it was part of his torture.


	2. Diamonds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cloud deals with the bare beginnings of his transformation; meanwhile Hojo watches and eats popcorn while getting harassed by Reno.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have not written fanfiction in almost 15 years, so forgive me if things are a bit off. Please mind the trigger tags as i would not like to be responsible for scarring anyone, and if i have forgotten a tag, please don't hesitate to let me know. I hope you enjoy this.. it's been many years in the making.

Pain greeted him as he woke up. The room was still dark, but at least he wasn't itching anymore. He moved to raise a hand and realized that he wasn't strapped down anymore either. He wondered how long he'd been out... it must have been a while and quite a deep slumber for them to have been able to come in and unstrap him without him moving.   
Then again, it had been weeks since he'd gotten decent, non-induced slumber at all. He raised his hand and moved his fingers, feeling himself all over. Aside from a strange slightly grainy skin texture... he seemed to be fine... asdie from that ache across his shoulders. That was annoying but there wasn't much he could do about it.

He sat up, or tried to. It took several minutes and quite a few false-starts before he actually managed to sit up. He was panting with the sheer amount of effort it had taken him. Was he really that weak? He supposed two months in stasis could do that to you but wasn't Mako exposure supposed to strengthen you? Then again... that was usually combined with intense training.   
He experimentally moved his legs. Well, they worked... theoretically anyway. He shifted on the gurney and swung his legs over the side of it. The question was... could he stand? He suddenly realized that upon sitting up, some of the pain in his shoulderblades had lessened considerably. He rolled them and hissed as pain shot through him. 

He reached a hand back to massage his shoulder and froze, all thoughts of standing up vanishing from his head as he felt a lump on his back. he shifted hands and felt an identical one on the other side. "What the....?" he muttered. He sighed. Whatever it was... he'd deal with it later. one thing at a time.   
Just as he was about to shift off the metal gurney he had been laying on; which wasn't comfortable in the least, mind you; The lights flickered on and he was momentarily blinded. As his eyes adjusted a bit he glanced around. Typical. He was in what was essentially a padded cell. There was a camera up in the corner, the metal gurney, and a door. That was pretty much it. 

He looked at himself... or what he could see. He seemed healthy enough, aside from being in considerable pain every time he tried to move. Then he caught it. A slight shimmer as the light hit his hand just right. He shifted about despite soft moans of pain and noticed it was everywhere.   
At that moment he realized that the assistants (because like hell would Hojo do any manual labor that wasn't inflicting pain on his victims) had had the decency, at the very least, to put a pair of black shorts on him. He went back to examining himself. Ok so his skin looked like it had diamonds embedded in it. That was new. 

Thinking to himself a bit, he tried to recall if he could remember anything said about what Hojo had done to him thus far. There was the injection of a serum Hojo had simply referred to as 'Genome E' and had recalled being in intense pain for a week as whatever was happening inside his abdomen happened. Hojo had seemed pleased with the results, and then had stuck him back in stasis.   
Assuming Hojo had been continuously subjecting him to Mako treatements, he figured he'd probably reached quite a lethality record. He moaned softly as the bumps on his shoulders throbbed painfully. It seemed they were growing slightly. He went back to thinking. That diamond lookng shit he'd just injected in him was beyond his actual knowledge... Hojo had neglected to name it before subjecting Cloud to the horrible shit. 

Reaching back to where the screws had been in his body he found, to his utter shock, a bandage! Come to think of it, he was bandaged wherever there had been IVs or tubes stuck in him. "Well shit, perhaps someone that works for that disgusting serpent of a man actually has a heart." he mused out loud to no one. Not that he considered Hojo a man of any sort, really... more like a monster in human skin. He shifted a bit on the gurney and jumped as he heard a noise.

A small flap in the bottom of the door moved and food was shoved in. Oh right... food. Something Cloud hadn't had in Gaia knew how long since he had been mostly fed by tubes and other nasty methods due to being in stasis. He stared at the tray as his stomach decided now would be a good time to eat itself; announcing to Cloud that he was indeed hungry.   
Welp, he had to get up now. No real choice in the matter. He shifted a bit on the gurney and slowly and painfully slid his hip so his foot hit the floor. Padded room generally meant padded floor, so at least it wasn't cold and hard. He shifted and put weight on his leg experimentally. He didn't immediately collapse so that was a good sign, but dear Gaia that was painful! 

He stifled a moan and slowly shifted his other hip off the gurney so he was essentially leaning against it. He clung to the thing like a toddler trying to find his balance for a while, the entire time trying to ignore the intense pain shooting through him. He gazed at his forearm. The shunt... that damnable thing was still there. They'd left one in. He didn't dare remove it... he was no doctor and if he wasn't careful he could hemmorage himself to death in a matter of seconds if he did it wrong.

Finally gaining his bearings and, despite how much pain he was actually in, he managed to lift a foot and take a step. He held onto the gurney and made his way down it towards the food, using it as sort of a lifeline for the moment till he had no choice but to let go and toddle, feeling too much pain with each step to think of how foolish he might look, till he got to the food tray. He slowly lowered himself to the floor and reached for the tray, going at the food like ... well.. like someone who hadn't eaten real food in months. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile Hojo was watching all this via the observation camera in the corner. A knock at his door, or rather an insistant and annoying tapping made itself known. "Whoever is there, this is my office and i'm rather busy, please remvoe yourself from my lab." "like hell." Came an all-too familiar drawl.   
Hojo jerked and inwardly swore, but did not even look at him. "What do you want now, Reno?" he asked, his tone bordering between impatient and nervous. The redheaded Turk wandered into the office as 

Hojo hurridly turned the 'channel' on the tv to show one of his other victims. His boss, namely, Rufus Shinra, had no idea he had captured Cloud; in fact, there was a rather large investigation going on in search of the blonde bastard. It was beyond Hojo's care why they were searching so desperately for such a low level member of SOLDIER, but like hell would he give up his most promising research subject since Sephiroth. 

"I asked what it is you want." Hojo said, turning to face him at last, his impatience winning out against his nerves. Reno was anything but relaxed, though he constantly seemed to look it. His blue-green eyes locked on Hojo. "Boss says you overshot your funding again." He said calmly, tapping his main weapon, the Electromagnetic Rod (EMR), against his shoulder. "He wants to know what on Gaia could possbily be using this much resource without showing results." 

Hojo glared at him. "I need time. Darknation wasn't created in a day, Brat." "Darknation already exists." Retorted Reno. "Hey, i'm just here to deliver a message." He said lazily. "Boss says show him some results by the end of the month, or you'll be meeting the 'business' end of my EMR." He held up a hand and wandered out of the office. Hojo rolled his eyes. He had two weeks. The end of the month was in two weeks... He had to speed things up with Cloud, if that was the case. 

Hojo had been tasked with making Remnants. However in order to make Remnants, one must have a compatible and capeable subject with the ability to do so. He had searched far and wide till he'd found Cloud to be the best candidate. Perhaps President Shinra would be sated once the gestation had begun... but before that... Hojo had to finish altering Cloud's genetic make-up.


	3. In My Defense; I Think The Boss Is Gay...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Reno and Rufus have an epiphany.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one's a bit short ^^;

Oblivious to what was happening in the lab wing of his own building, Rufus Shinra sat at his desk, his pet Darknation sleeping on her bed in the corner. He was doing paper work as Reno knocked and entered, flopping onto the chair uncermoniously. "Alright, message delivered. Ugh that guy gives me the creeps...I don't know why you keep him around."  
Rufus glanced up at him. "Sit up, don't slouch like that. You're a Turk, not a gutter rat." He said in exhaspiration. Reno raised an eyebrow. "Technically speakin', Sir. I'm both." He replied, but sat up anyway. "In any case, Hojo is a necessary evil for the moment." Rufus continued calmly, signing something and sticking it in an envelope. "Soo... Beggin' no disrespect or nuthin, Boss, but why did you call me in here? 'Sides pesterin Hojo, you gotta have another reason." 

Looking up from his work Rufus sighed. "First of all stop talking like an ignorant thug." He said. "Secondly close the door. We need to have a talk." Reno shrugged and got up, pushing the office door shut. "Boss I don't see why you needed me... I mean, isn't that Stick-up-'is-ass Tseng supposed to be handlin th-" He was cut off as Rufus pinned him to the door.  
"Shut up." he said softly. Reno's eyes widened. "Boss what the He-!" "I believe I said shut up." Rufus said, clapping a hand over Reno's mouth. Reno blinked and relaxed. Rufus then released him and he went to sit down at his desk. "Come here." he ordered. Reno walked over behind the desk. Rufus sighed and pointed to his desk. "Sit." The redhead was thuroughly puzzled, but did as he was told perching on Rufus' desk. 

"Reno... Do you have ... feelings ... for anyone?" Rufus asked softly. "Are you ... interested... in anyone romantically?" Reno blinked in confusion. "Well... Rude and I sometimes play around...but otherwise not really... unless." Finally the lightbulb pinged. "Boss... Do you..." He smiled slowly.  
Instead of finishing his question however he leaned in and lightly gripped Rufus' chin in one hand, pressing their lips together in a gentle kiss. He half expected his boss to shove him away and kick his ass, but instead Rufus leaned into it, half surprising the redhead even further. 

Rufus Shinra had always been an enigma that Reno tried to figure out... there was something that flashed in him once in a while about how they'd first met... back when he was a new Turk; partnered with Rude only because that's the only person he actually respected. But Reno didn't remember much about it. All he knew was that he had feelings for the guy... but Rufus never seemed to give him the time of day.  
With good reason, he supposed. Reno was a good Turk, but he wasn't anything special... at least in his mind. Rufus, on the other hand, had an entire company to deal with and he figured the guy was too busy to even think about romance... but now... With that kiss it seemed like something was unlocked. Memories flowed into both of them.

They pulled apart; both with confused looks on their faces. "uhh... did you?" "yeah.." Something had forced them to forget... when they were young... Rufus still being babysat by Tseng; his father still alive and being a horrible dictator... Tseng had to leave for a few days....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_... "Reno, we have to keep an eye on the young Vice President." Said Rude. "oh man." Reno moaned. "Last thing i need is to play errand boy for some uppity rich brat." "Hush. You should show him some respect, he'll be your boss someday." "pshh whatever." he muttered. They knocked on the door of the suite. Tseng answered. "He's grounded." Was the first thing he said._  
_"I'll be back in a few weeks. He's grounded till thursday. Don't let him get away with any bullshit," Instructed the head of the Turks. Reno gave him a mock salute; "Yes, Sir!" Tseng shook his head and nodded to Rude, walking off down the hall muttering something about insuboordinate gutter rats._  
_Reno walked into the suite and looked around, whistling softly. "Holy shit this place is ritzy." he commented. "Try jail cell," came a voice. Reno looked around. The speaker was settled rather grumpily on the couch. "Ah... so you're the Shinra Brat." he said as he wandered over. "Reno.." admonished Rude warningly. The redhead waved it off._  
_"Rufus." shot back the blonde sitting on the couch. "Ah well I'm Reno and I don't take orders from no haughty little blonde brats too big for their britches." He said, flopping onto an adjacent chair. They looked at each other and both burst out laughing. Rude sighed. This would be a long few weeks..._

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rufus and Reno stared at each other... then started laughing. "How could we have forgotten that?" Rufus asked. "Dunno... but I guess repressed memories are triggered with something... maybe we should kiss again." Said Reno cheekily. Rufus chuckled and shook his head. "nah... not right now. I have to finish my paperwork."

"Soo am I done for the day?" Reno asked. "Yeah." Rufus responded absently, shoving Reno off his desk and digging through the drawers for a stamp of some sort. "You and Rude can have the night off. Go on, Shoo." Reno nodded. "No problem, Boss." He winked at him and left his office, heading to finde Rude and drag him off to get drunk... and possibly discuss with him this development of their boss suddenly revealing he had the hots for him.


	4. Technicolor Yawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reno and Rude go out drinking; meanwhile Rufus calls Tseng in to demand a few answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> gah sorry this one's a bit short. ^^;

Reno took the elevator to the lounge and found Rude there, sitting in a chair and relaxing with a bottle of water. The redhead walked over to him and flopped across his lap, batting the water bottle away from him. "Oi now, we're off duty, want to head to the bar and get wasted?" He asked him. Rude raised an eyebrow; unphased at the familiarity his partner showed by draping himself over him.  
"And by that you mean; 'Do you want to go to the bar and watch me get wasted and dance on tables.'" He reiterated. "Oh shush ya great lump, are we going or not?" Rude shrugged. "fine, fine, just don't get mad at me if you wake up with a really bad hangover again." He said, rolling his eyes. 

The redhead was barely old enough to drink, but Rude indulged him; along with Reno's other vice. Speaking of which, Reno was in the process of pulling out a cigarette at that moment. Rude grabbed the pack and shook his head. "Not in the lounge, you know that." he admonished him. "Sorry." Reno muttered.   
He climbed out of Rude's lap and got up, tugging the older man with him and dragging him to the elevator down to ground floor. Once outside he lit up the cigarette and looked to Rude. "Happy now?" "No. You know I don't like you smoking." He said solidly. "Meh. Come on, lets go to the bar." 

~~~~~~~~

Upon arriving at the bar, Reno walked up to the tender and flopped onto a stool, Rude following a bit slowly. He ordered a drink and turned to his partner. "So ya know how Boss wanted me today?" He began conversationally. "Yeah." Rude said after he'd ordered a drink as well. "welllll I think he like... _Wanted_ me." He said with a smirk. "You mean..." "well, when a guy pins me to the office door and then kisses me, I kind-of get the feeling they want to get in my pants." He said nonchalantly as he sipped at his drink as it was slid down the bar. 

Rude stared at him. "I suppose it was only a matter of time." He said. Reno raised an eyebrow and poked him. "Eh? what's that supposed to mean?" he demanded. Rude just shrugged at him. "OI! Don't go sayin' shit like that and not tell me! What!" Rude sipped at his drink and declined to respond, knowing Reno would get the hint eventually.   
"Ruuuuuuuudeeeeeeeee" Reno whined, pestering him and prodding him for another good ten minutes before realizing Rude wasn't going to talk and pouting into his drink. He then looked at Rude, running his fingers up his partners' arm and coyly whispering in his ear; "i thought we didn't keep secrets from each other..." he said as he nibbled on his earlobe. Rude stiffened but again, refused to reply. 

Reno sighed and glared into his drink for a few minutes before shooting the entire thing and calling for another. Rude rolled his eyes and figured he was in for one hell of a night. He sipped at his drink and watched Reno progressively get drunker till finally he was wandering, stumbling really, around the bar and hitting on anyone in sight. Upon seeing his charge attempt to climb onto a table to start dancing and singing some racious song he snagged his arm.

"Reno... If you're being hit on by President Shinra shouldn't you like, not talk to other people about screwing around?" he said into his ear. Reno waved him off and tried once more to climb onto the table, this time succeeding. He proposed an obnoxious toast and then began to sing some really bad song that he'd probably learned on the streets before Rude had saved his scrawny ass, dancing around like an idiot while he did so. After about ten minutes the bartender seemed to be getting irritated and Rude jerked him down. "that's it. you're cut off... we're going home." he said flatly. Reno whined and struggled but Rude was, as always, stronger than him. 

He dragged him out of the bar just in time for the redhead to double over in the bushes near the bar and vomit. Rude sighed and waited for him to finish before continuing to drag him back to the main Shinra building, stopping twice more for Reno to produce techincolor yawn. Finally he got Reno to his room and stuck him in bed; the guy practically passed out anyway, and left a bucket by his bedside before leaving with a shake of his head. "what am i going to do with you?" he asked himself as he left. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rufus was pacing his study as a knock came at the door. "You called for me, Mister President?" came a stiff voice from the entrance. Rufus glanced over. "Yes Tseng I did. You wouldn't happen to know why some of my memories from my childhood have been erased, would you?" he asked conversationally.   
Tseng seemed to tense up; if that was humanly possible... the guy was already wound tighter than a spring on a daily basis. Rufus noticed. "I'll take that as a yes." he said, pointing to a chiar. "Sit down. We need to have a talk." 

The leader of the Turks sighed and leaned back in the chair. "Sir, there are some things you need to be protected from an-" "Do those things include Reno?" Rufus said, cutting him off. ".... Sir... you have to understand.. You were too young, He's a reckless idio-" "So you took it upon yourself to ruin something that was good and wonderful just because you 'thought it was in my best interest'?" his voice was dangerous. "I....." For once Tseng had no snappy come back. "That's what i thought. Get out of my sight." he snapped. He had to talk to Reno. Unfortunately he knew Reno had left for the evening... He'd have to do so tomorrow.


	5. Serum E-C

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's raining blood and crystal feathers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm aware that the chapter is probably the shortest one i've ever written, but i needed to get this out today. Will probably fix it and add more to it later.

After eating the food, Cloud had collapsed onto the gurney once more, laying on his side to try and alleviate some of the pain from his shoulders. Those damn growths kept getting bigger and more painful, and now they were bumpy. 

He'd reached back to press on them- sending jolts of liquid fire down his spine, but the skin sprung back like a weird pillow. Groaning, Cloud hoped for the pain to fade with some sleep and closed his eyes and despite the failure of the lights in the room to turn off he soon fell into a fitful slumber.

He awoke about an hour later. The pain in his shoulders had reached the point of being to be too much to bear, the lumps were now straining against his skin. A soft cry of anguish wrenched itself out of him as he shifted on the gurney. The pain was now shooting down his back as well, on either side of his spine. 

He rolled his shoulders to try and ease the pain; after all it had worked earlier. With a flesh-tearing sound and a sudden agonizing pain the lump on his right shoulder burst open, then the left, as if triggered. Something flew out of each of them and the sheer force of the rushing air knocked Cloud off the gurney and onto the floor on his knees. 

He sat there, eyes closed tight as he panted and waited for at least the blinding pain to subside a bit. Blood dripped onto his back like a foul rain and finally, he looked up. The air in the room shifted, and almost sounded like something was fluttering through the room. Heart pounding his nerves like war drums, he opened his eyes. 

What he saw shocked him. Falling all around him were... feathers? he Moved to stand up and froze, realizing he still felt something on his shoulders. Soreness, and a deep ache, but also a strange heaviness that was also weirdly light. 

Light danced on the walls in strange rainbow patterns all around his now very blood-splattered padded cell. He reached out to take one of the bloody feathers in his hand. It was beautiful, gleaming as if made of the purest crystal but soft to the touch. 

Slowly, he sat up. and felt a strange sensation in his back even as he heard a soft brushing sound as something touched the floor. He reached a trembling hand back to his shoulder-blade and at the base of it felt an appendage that hadn't been there before. For a moment, his breath caught in his throat.

His hand followed it from the base. More feathers. He continued till he couldn't reach anymore. The appendage trembled under his hand, and there was a shivering tug at his shoulder-blade. 

Hardly daring to breathe, Cloud turned his head. A pair of gigantic wings protruded from his back... the feathers both see-through and refractive like crystals, despite the blood still clinging to them and clumping many of them together. 

He knew he was bleeding but he also could feel the wounds begin to heal. "What the hell did that jerk inject into me? What... am I?" he asked the empty room. 

Surprisingly he got an answer. "What I injected into you was Serum E-C." said a speaker Cloud wasn't aware existed. It was probably on the camera. "As for what you are, that remains to be seen. It seems the Serum worked. The seed has been planted. It's almost time to add in the final ingredient." 

Cloud swore. "Haven't you done enough to me?!" 

Even without seeing his face, the grin splitting Hojo's face could be heard. "Oh my dear boy, I've only just begun."


End file.
